Building boom gives residents many options for exercising

Southeast Missouri added two major indoor fitness centers in the last year and a third indoor facility catering to young baseball and softball players opened in the fall.

Still, there is room in the market for more indoor recreation opportunities, according to Jackson businessman Shawn McNally.

McNally plans to build the 40,000-square-foot Southeast Sports and Fitness Center, to be located just west of Interstate 55, just north of the Jackson water tower, and to include two indoor swimming pools, a gymnastics center, a dance studio, martial arts, indoor soccer courts and a fitness center. Ground breaking is planned for this spring with completion in the fall.

In addition, as the result of a fund-raising campaign by the Cape Area Tennis Association, a 30,000-square-foot building attached to the facility will include two tennis courts.

It's a one-of-a-kind facility for this area, catering to active families.

"The main reason we're doing it is to create a facility where the entire family can exercise in one place," said McNally, who operates Class Act Gymnastics currently just south of the water tower. "I probably have 100 parents in here nightly that are waiting while their kids take gymnastics, and many of them have asked about making exercise equipment available.

"I think we'll offer a competitive product at an affordable price," McNally said. "We'll be one of a handful of this type of facility in the country."

The Southeast Sports and Fitness Center will come on the heels of fitness facilities opened in 2004 by two local hospitals -- Southeast Missouri Hospital's HealthPoint Plaza and Saint Francis Medical Center's Fitness Plus. Those facilities, in addition to existing fitness facilities at Southeast Missouri State University and recreational opportunities offered by local parks and recreation departments, give Southeast Missourians many options for staying healthy.

"There are a lot of people exercising who weren't exercising before," said Bill Logan, director of operations for HealthPoint Plaza and the hospital's Main Street Family Fitness Center in Jackson. "There's no excuse not to find a way to exercise in the area.

"We're so fortunate to have two fitness centers in Cape and one in Jackson. I don't know of many other areas in the country that have these kinds of facilities. When we went into this, we wanted to make Cape Girardeau County the healthiest county in the state of Missouri."

HealthPoint, which opened on Sept. 14, saw a better-than-anticipated membership of 1,400 when the doors opened. That figure is approximately 2,500 now.

"We've been ahead of the curve on our membership since we opened," Logan said. "I think one of the great things is it's a wide-open facility. It's well designed. I think the other thing is -- and I may be biased on this -- the staff is a really friendly staff."

Logan said HealthPoint's Body Pump classes have been popular, and said the facility has appealed to all ages.

Saint Francis Medical Center's Fitness Plus, located off Mount Auburn Road, also has increased membership each month since opening its doors on Sept. 27. The four-story, 144,000-square-foot facility replaced the Universal Health and Fitness Center and also includes 75,000 square feet of medical offices.

Doug Friese, manager of Fitness Plus, said the facility has proved to be popular with an older clientele.

"The layout of the club is more inviting," Friese said. "The way we've laid out the equipment and spread it over different areas of the workout floor allows you to come in and find a place that's not busy to work out in if you prefer that.

"All the ages seem to enjoy having three pools to choose from."

Both HealthPoint and Fitness Plus are able to complement the fitness programs with medical and rehabilitation services.

For those interested in improving specific sports skills, Jim Barton opened Southern Premiere Sports on Highway 74 between Cape Girardeau and Dutchtown on Nov. 10.

The 6,840-square-foot building has indoor batting cages and practice areas for baseball, softball and soccer. Barton plans to add a basketball training area this spring.

Barton, who lives in Benton, Ill., contemplated locations in need of an indoor training facility for two years before settling on his current spot.

"With the metropolis of Cape and Jackson and even going a little further south to Sikeston, I figured there could be enough to do it full time," Barton said. "So I checked it out and found out there was no other facilities like it down there, I went ahead with it."